Dr. P, please return to the Upper West Side soon. Your frank and clear thinking is scarce in these parts. No surprise at your award from this quarter, where the pages of your thesis are avidly turned (when there's time), but congratulations. Walter.

Dr. P, please return to the Upper West Side soon. Your frank and clear thinking are scarce in these parts. No surprise at your award from this quarter, where the pages of your thesis are avidly turned (when there's time), but congratulations. Walter.

"Dick Lugar, who are still strong advocates of democracy promotion today."

Please explain this comment as Dick Lugar has never shown much of an interest in anything other than citing the foreign policy establishment's position whatever it is. When has Dick Lugar enunciated a clear position on democracy promotion like Senator McCain or really gone after Russia or Saudi Arabia?

The answer is he has not. Dick Lugar is an absolute hack, who has little in the way of ideas of his own and I say this as a moderate Republican and Bush supporter.

As for the Democratic party, they haven't cared about Democracy promotion since the 1940's despite JFK's rhetoric. Their policy consensus is also incoherent as they favor bilateral negotiations with North Korea, while they criticize Bush for having a unilateral foreign policy. Bilateral negotiatons make no sense from either a liberal internationalist, neoconservative, or realist foreign policy. Democrats favor raising minimum wage while they condemn outsourcing. Well gee wiz can't one figure out that if you raise the minimum wage you encourage not discourage outsourcing. If you want less illegal immigration from Mexico, NAFTA helps not hurts there efforts.

You can criticize Republican foreign policy all you want, but at least it makes sense even to those who disagree.